St Josephs High School - Crest / Signet Yearbook (Garrett, IN)

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Valedictory It is said that every rose has its thorn, every joy has its undercurrent of sorrow; certain it is that the Class of 1937 finds the pleasure of achievement dimmed by the severing of school and class companionships. “To the shortest path and the longest lane there comes an end”; inevitable change brings the sweet, sad word—farewell. We leave our school with deep appreciation for the ad- vantages it has given us. Education is capital; by investing it wisely we may become factors in the world’s progress. Modern education seeks to give a three-fold development and send forth students upright in character, vigorous and healthy of body, alert and trained in mind that they may give to life the combined efforts of heart, hands and head. It is our pride that we receive our diplomas of graduation from a school that has given us this valuable training. We leave our school with a high regard for the dignity of labor—the toil of the hands as well as of the head. All labor which tends to supply man’s wants, to increase his happiness or to elevate his nature is honorable. Labor is the mighty magician who advances civilization through the chan- nels of art, science, music and invention. It is the hope of the boys and girls of the class of 1937 that we may join the ranks of the real workers on the field of action, for the life- giving power of education was intended to fit us, not for cul- tivated leisure, but for honorable occupation. Reverend Father, Parents and Teachers: To you we would express our thanks for the privileges you have given us through our school, and for the courtesies extended to our class. Our school has been to us the Bank of Knowl- edge on which we have drawn for funds. Years of the high- est endeavor alone can repay the debt we owe our Alma Mater. We promise to repay these funds by passing on to the world the best efforts of which we are capable. Classmates: Though the time for farewell is at hand and we shall meet no more as seniors, let us not break the ties that have bound us during the happy years of work in dear St. Joseph High. Let us resolve.anew, amid these happy scenes, to fare forth bravely and so to live that we may be proud of each other and that our school may be proud of each and every one of us. Let us be patriotic. Let us remember our class motto “Today we follow tomorrow we lead” and that the young people of today hold in their hands the future of our country. There is a crying need for men and women who are willing to sacrifice their selfish desires for the good of their community and fellowmen. Our country needs citizens who live up to the golden rule seven days in the week ; who lift a helping hand to the other fellow. Let us pay our debt to our school by years of noble living. [19]

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The class of 1937 extends to you a most cordial greet- ing and welcomes you to this, the laying of the final mile- stone along the journey of high school. For four long years—yet speedy as we look back upon their passing—we have worked for and looked forward to these closing scenes We have longed for this hour, in our career as students. when before an appreciative company of kindred and friends, we should sway you, with our attraction, the elo- quence of our impassioned voices, and the plainly—visible importance of the class of 1937. That time, my friends, has arrived, and we stand before you with the enthusiasm of youth, the pride of the conque ror and the joy of the victor. We have fought the long-drawn- out, “Battle with Books’; we have conquered our enemies “The Exams”; we are about to receive the badge of efficient service—our diplomas. For four years our little fleet, which happens to be the Sala fafory largest fleet St. Joseph High has had, has been sailing calmly in the harbor, riding the ripples of work and pleasure, bask- ing in the sunshine of our teachers’ commendation and— occasionally in the clouds of their wrath. Today we weigh our anchors and begin that voyage into the sea of action where each one of us must steer his craft toward the goal of the future, in other words, we begin to lead. The flowers and everything around us tell us that it is June; yet to us, it is also New Year’s Day, that ushers us from the old months of school activities into the new life of broader endeavor. We thrill with appreciation of the bene- fits you, dear friends, have showered upon us through our school. True education draws out and develops all the hu- man faculties ; it wakes the heedless youth to the fact that life has a work for him to perform, and we thank you, as we wel- come you to these scenes of triumph, for enabling us to suc- cessfully complete the work of high school.

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Thoughts on Graduation Day The appearance of our “Annual” indicates that another year has passed beyond recall. The present time has dif- ferent meanings for different classes of our school, but the past has about the same for each of us. To the seniors the days of commencement are a corner around which lies a dif- ferent life, to the undergraduates they are a milestone. Those leaving the school this year will never be just the same as they have been these many years. The companionship of school mates will gradually be supplanted by friendships formed in business and social life. The tasks of school days will be dismissed and in their places more stern occupations will engage the minds. The guidance of teachers will be a thing of the past and decisions will have to be made with the remembrance of those principles of Christian morality learned throughout the course in our beloved school. Re- sponsibilities will begin to fall on shoulders that heretofore were quite free of them. Parents who have made many sacrifices for long years will now begin to look to their chil- dren for some return for the affection and care that were lavished upon them so freely. The general public will look to these graduates for some contribution to better and hap- pier living, and the Church will see in them new hope for the spread of that philosophy of life that was embodied so well in the Sermon on the Mount. All of this sounds serious and it is. The one who takes his graduation from a Catholic High School in any other light but the serious makes a mis- take, and the penalty for that mistake must be paid by him and by those who had builded their hopes on him. To the undergraduates this day means a promotion to a higher class and a long step toward the time when the things said about the seniors will be true of them. It is a wise boy or girl who tries to understand just what a senior should be and then begins to make himself just that. Far better to dream out the desired accomplishments in advance and then strive for them, than to realize suddenly when it is too late, the real importance of the period of preparation through which he is now passing. The end of a school term should beget a stronger determination to use the next one better. Instead of growing younger and accordingly more irrespon- sible each of us is growing steadily older and must assume the responsibilities of our years. All in all, it means just this, “Time is moving onward, we must move with it. What we wish to be later, we must begin to be now.”